The Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane over Molybdenum-Containing Catalysts: The Effect of Support Pretreatment on Catalytic Performance

Previous work from this laboratory has shown that of a series of molybdena catalysts supported on various supports, molybdena supported on titania was the most promising catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane and that the yields obtained with this material compared well with those of some of the best catalysts for this reaction reported in the literature. This paper reports work which showed that an even more effective catalyst was molybdena supported on an alumina which had been calcined at higher temperatures to reduce its total surface area. The effect of different calcination temperatures of the alumina support was examined in some detail and it was found that calcination at 1200°C gave the best results. It has been shown that a coverage at least equivalent to a monolayer is necessary for the optimum performance of the catalyst.